San Francisco Frontiers - Breakaway Catholic society defies Vatican again by ordaining bishops

The ultra-traditionalist breakaway group, which has around 600,000 followers worldwide, intends to appoint four bishops: two French, one American and one Swiss.

The ceremony was due to take place during a mass in Latin lasting around four hours before an expected 15,000-strong congregation in the fields of Econe in southwest Switzerland -- the very spot where the society's founder Marcel Lefebvre controversially consecrated four bishops 38 years ago.

"It is a historic day. Something very important is happening now; it won't stop here," Jean-Pierre Stauffer, a 79-year-old worshipper, told AFP.

He had travelled from Geneva to attend the ceremony, which began around 8:30am (0630 GMT) in the rain with a long procession of priests.

"I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!" Pope Leo wrote Monday in a letter to the society, calling it a "schismatic act".

"To tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity," the pontiff said.

The Society of Saint Pius X comprises fundamentalist Catholics who strongly oppose the liberal reforms imposed by the Vatican II Council in the 1960s.

The brotherhood was founded in 1970 by Lefebvre, a French bishop.

The new consecrations were set to take place near the society's seminary in Econe, a village at the foot of the mountains in the Rhone valley.

"It is not an act of rebellion, it is an act born of love for the Church," Father Michel Rion, a theology professor at the seminary -- one of the society's five worldwide -- told AFP.

As in 1988, the society's future bishops will be consecrated without assigned jurisdiction from Rome.

- 'We would rather die' -

"There is absolutely nothing schismatic or anti-Church in our actions. We hope that one day the pope will see that. For us, being schismatic is the worst thing that could happen, we would rather die than be schismatic," Rion insisted.

The society says it is present in more than 75 countries across six continents, with more than 750 priests.

Adhering to a strict interpretation of Roman Catholic tradition, the society holds masses in Latin celebrated by priests with their backs turned to the congregation.

"The Church constantly seeks to adapt -- to adapt its message to lead souls to heaven," but has "adapted too much to the world", said Rion.

For the Holy See, consecrating bishops without the approval of Pope Leo would be a direct act of insubordination, leading to the automatic excommunication of the bishops -- both those being consecrated and those performing the act.

The society's superior general, Father Davide Pagliarani, said in a statement published Tuesday that the group would go ahead with the consecrations and insisted it was "neither schismatic nor hostile to the Church".

Andre, a 46-year-old Gabonese worshipper from Versailles in France, told AFP at the ceremony: "This is a historic moment. In a few years, we will almost certainly be told that the choice we made was the right one."

- Only two bishops left -

In 1988, Pope John Paul II issued a similar appeal but failed to stop the society from ordaining bishops. They were immediately excommunicated, but the sanction was lifted in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.

His successor, Pope Francis, had, starting in 2015, recognised the validity of confessions and marriages celebrated by the society's priests.

The society sees consecrating new bishops as a necessity, arguing it has only two bishops left.

Although influential in certain conservative circles, it remains a tiny group within the Roman Catholic Church and its roughly 1.3 billion faithful.

G.Allen--SFF